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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation is a
3federally-recognized Indian tribe that originally occupied
4homelands in southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and
5northwestern Indiana; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Members of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
7were signatories to the 1829 Treaty of Prairie du Chien, which
8reserved two sections of land near Paw Paw Grove, Illinois for
9Potawatomi Chief Shab-eh-nay and his band; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Shortly thereafter, the Potawatomi people of
11northern Illinois were removed from their homelands in
12connection with the U.S. Indian Removal Policy of the 1830s;
13and
 
14    WHEREAS, The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation relinquished
15nearly all of their initial 28 million-acre homeland in the
16Great Lakes area when the Treaty of Chicago was signed only
17three years later; and
 
18    WHEREAS, The 1833 Treaty of Chicago did not cede the
19Shab-eh-nay Reservation to the U.S., but instead it reaffirmed
20the reservation established for Chief Shab-eh-nay and his band
21in the 1829 Treaty of Prairie du Chien; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Because the land reserved for Chief Shab-eh-nay
2and his band in Illinois was expressly reserved by the U.S.
3Senate when it ratified the Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1829,
4the land belonged to Chief Shab-eh-nay and his band despite
5the removal of most of his tribe to lands in Kansas; and
 
6    WHEREAS, In 1849, while Chief Shab-eh-nay was away
7visiting relatives in Kansas, the U.S. General Land Office
8illegally sold the land and passed the title to non-natives;
9and
 
10    WHEREAS, Since then, individuals, the State of Illinois,
11the DeKalb county government, and corporate entities assumed
12ownership of lands within the Shab-eh-nay Reservation and
13continue to occupy Shab-eh-nay's lands to the present day; and
 
14    WHEREAS, The current non-Indian occupants within the
15Shab-eh-nay Reservation should not be held liable for
16occupying the land; and
 
17    WHEREAS, The federal government has admitted that it
18violated federal law when it sold the Shab-eh-nay Reservation
19in 1849; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Only congress can affirm the Prairie Band

 

 

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1Potawatomi Nation's authority within the reservation, resolve
2any damages owed to them, and clear the land title of the
3state, county, and local residents; and
 
4    WHEREAS, The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation seeks a
5complete resolution of all issues relating to the Shab-eh-nay
6Reservation through congressional recognition of its land
7ownership and the taking of land by the federal government;
8therefore, be it
 
9    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
10HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
11we support the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation's efforts to
12regain possession of Chief Shab-eh-nay and his band's land
13that was illegally sold by the federal government in 1849; and
14be it further
 
15    RESOLVED, That we urge the federal government to enact
16legislation to address the ownership of the Shab-eh-nay
17Reservation reserved for Chief Shab-eh-nay and his descendants
18under the Treaty of Chicago in 1833.